Maelstrom Once Again
by naru-uchiha23
Summary: as a result of the promise Naruto made to sakura, Naruto fights sasuke at the valley at the end but loses, the guys placed on the mission to recover sasuke come back without Naruto but all sakura cares about is sasuke. Naruto is missing and pronounced dead. But hinata refuses to believe he is. Is she right?


**Naru-uchiha: oh, I'm back with another story. But you need not worry; I WILL finish ALL my stories.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

'This is thinking'

"This is talking"

"**This is bijuu/animal talking**"

_This is a flashback_

**Summary: as a result of the promise Naruto made to sakura, Naruto fights sasuke at the valley at the end but loses, the guys placed on the mission to recover sasuke come back without Naruto but all sakura cares about is sasuke. Naruto is missing and pronounced dead. But hinata refuses to believe he is. Is she right?**

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**He's gone…or is he?**

Two kunoichi laughed as they walked along the busy streets of konoha.

"Can you believe that Konohamaru? He's so annoying." The blonde one with ocean blue eyes said.

The pinkette laughed.

"Yeah, and hyper too, just like…just like…" Sakura sighed and her laughter died.

"Sakura…you can't blame yourself." Ino said sadly, placing a hand on the shoulder of her best friend.

"but I was the one who made him make that promise! Because of me Naruto is…" Sakura said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Sakura, I know that Naruto is…dead. But he wouldn't want to see you tearing yourself up like this." Ino said, embracing her crying friend.

"b-but…"

"No buts forehead. Come on, we have to get to the hokage tower.

Sakura sniffled.

"o-okay" she said.

Ino gave a tiny smiled and they continued their walk to the hokage tower.

Sakura sighed as she thought about her life so far.

'Pathetic, I'm the only one left'

_**Flashback**_

_Sasuke had deflected from the village, Naruto was dead, and Kakashi had become cold and emotionless to her as a result of her reaction to Naruto's death. The whole of konoha had taken on a gloomy look after the loss of the unpredictable blonde knucklehead. Even those that had wanted the so called "demon" dead, hadn't felt the self satisfaction they had thought they would feel when he was dead. They instead felt a foreboding sense of guilt._

_It had been two and a half years since that day. The day Neji, Kakashi, Gaara, Lee, Temari, Kankuro, Choji Shikamaru, Kiba and Naruto had gone on the mission to get Sasuke. She had been shocked to see her friend when they had returned from the mission. She had immediately noticed that something was definitely very wrong._

"_w-where's Sasuke-kun?" she asked but quickly shut up as she felt the killing intent coming from the shinobi as they glared daggers at her._

"_Sasuke? Sasuke? You see us come back all battered and bleeding. You see Neji and Choji in critical condition and all you can think about is Sasuke?" Kiba yelled, his eyes blazing._

"_b-but…"_

"_Didn't you even for a second notice that your teammate isn't with us?" Kakashi yelled._

"_I noticed! That's why I asked, where is Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked._

_She didn't notice Temari's glare and was even more surprised to see the sand nin go up to he and give her a hard slap on her cheek. _

"_You sicken me girl, you didn't even notice that Naruto wasn't here?" Temari asked._

_Sakura gasped, she hadn't noticed at all._

"_Where is the baka?" she asked, without thinking._

_Everyone had to hold Gaara back as he lunged for her._

"_Baka? Baka? Your teammate is dead because of a stupid promise he made to you and you call him an idiot?" Gaara yelled, shocking everyone because Gaara was not one to show any emotions._

'_Naruto? Dead…no, it can't be' she thought._

_She gasped as she saw the normally carefree lee glare fiercely at her._

"_I used to love you because I thought you were a gentle and caring girl, but I see now that you are just a shallow and pathetic excuse for a shinobi." Lee said._

"_Some friend you are." Kankuro spat._

_The ninja took off, in the direction of the hospital, leaving the stunned girl behind._

_**Flashback end**_

Sakura shook her head, stopping her train of thoughts.

As a result of her behaviour that day, most of the konoha 12 and the sand siblings refused to speak to her. And when they had missions together, they would either ignore her or be hostile to her, but it was usually the former. The hokage had continued to train her only because she knew Naruto wouldn't approve if she was to refuse to.

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Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, Higurashi Tenten, Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, Rock Lee, Maito Gai, I have summoned you for a very important mission." Tsunade said completely sober. Seriousness evident in her voice.

"What is the mission hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked.

"We have been summoned by sunagakure. Turns out the kazekage was kidnapped yesterday." Tsunade said.

"What? Gaara's been kidnapped?" tenten asked.

"Apparently, he was abducted by two Akatsuki members. Akasuna no Sasori; a missing Nin from sunagakure and one of the best puppet and poison masters in the world. And Deidara, a missing Nin from iwagakure, we do not know much of his abilities. Except that he uses clay for his Jutsu. I want you to retrieve the kazekage as soon as possible. Will you accept the mission?

"Hai, hokage-sama." They all said in unison.

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Getting to suna was quick and uneventful, everyone ignoring Sakura and those who didn't only glared at her. They were usher ed through the suna gates where they met Temari who though didn't like the fact that Sakura had been pat of the mission had regrettably admitted that they needed her help to heal Kankuro who have fought akasuna no Sasori and was poisoned. Through Sakura's knowledge of medicine and poison, she was able to save the puppet user's life and produced an antidote for the poison. The konoha Nin, along with elder Chiyo from suna set off towards the direction of the Akatsuki base. Getting there, they were met with what looked like a huge cavern with a big-ass rock covering the mouth of the cave. Neji, Lee, Tenten, and Gai went their separate ways in order to break the seals. Immediately they were released, Sakura placed a well aimed punch at the middle of the rock, causing it to crumble.

They ran inside the dark cave only to see the one known as Deidara sitting on the kazekage's corpse.

"G-Gaara" Hinata gasped.

"You miscreant, how dare you sit on the kazekage!" Chiyo yelled.

"Oh, why hello Chiyo baa-san." A raspy voice said and a large hunchback like man with a metal scorpion tail walked out of the shadows.

'Granny?' they all thought.

"Sasori" chiyo said.

"I had thought you were retired."

"I was, until I heard you had abducted the kazekage."

Since their attention was on the two puppet masters, the konoha Nin didn't notice the bomb artist until they saw he had mad a large clay bird. Deidara smirked as his creation put the kazekage in his mouth and began to fly off.

'Cant let the brat get all the fun.' Sasori thought, jumping on the large bird which flew ahead.

"After them!" Kakashi yelled.

They then entered a clearing where the Akatsuki jumped down from the bird.

"If it's a fight you want, come and get it! Consider your self lucky to experience my art, un" Deidara yelled placing his hand into his clay pack. They watched as his hand mouths released the chew lump of clay. Deidara then clenched his hands a few times, releasing about a dozen clay birds which flew towards his opponents.

Deidara placed his hand into a one handed seal.

"Katsu!" he yelled, intending the birds to blow up his opponent, but he didn't count on what happened next.

"Futon, wind tunnel no jutsu" a voice said and they watched as the one who spoke, extended his hands and a vacuum like vortex sucked the explosion caused by the clay birds into it.

They all looked at the figure. It was a man wearing a black cloak with a hood that dipped low so the top half of his face was covered and the bottom half was hidden b the shadows.

'Who is this guy?' Sakura thought.

'Why did he save us? Though his chakra is familiar…' Kakashi thought.

'Who is he? I'll check with my byakugan.' Hinata thought.

"Byakugan" Hinata chanted, the familiar veins bulging around her pronounced lavender eyes.

She gasped as she looked at the man with her enhanced eyes.

'w-what's wrong? It's like something is blocking my byakugan…although, his chakra pathways are similar to…could it be?' Hinata thought as a spark of hope which she thought was gone since she heard Naruto was supposedly dead was rekindled within her.

"You bastard, un!" Deidara yelled, his eyes blazing in anger.

"Step aside brat, this is true art!" Sasori wriggled his fingers causing about a dozen wooden puppets to rise up around him.

"Hinata frowned at the chakra threads she could see with her byakugan.

"This will all the over in a minute." Sasori said.

The puppet master sent the puppets towards the figure that merely stood there.

Then out of the puppets' mouths and hands flew a large number of kunai, shuriken and senbon which the figure made no attempt to dodge.

'What's he doing? He's going to get hit.' Sakura thought.

At the last minute, the man raised his right hand and the weapons headed for him simply halted in front of it.

'What the…'Sasori thought.

'He stopped them, just like that, without handsigns but…that's impossible, unless…' Kakashi thought and his eyes widened.

"Hn, I would have expected more from the so called puppet master." The man said and gave a low chuckle.

'His voice, it sounds really familiar, I just can't quite put my finger on it.' Hinata thought.

The man then somehow surrounded the weapons thrown at him earlier in black flames and waved his hand effectively sending them back to the hunchback figure of akasuna no Sasori.

But the most alarming thing was that immediately the weapons made contact, the flames quickly spread over him, reducing it t a pile of ash and in the centre stood a red head boy who looked not to be older than 19.

'This is his real body?' Neji thought.

Gai's team had returned to the clearing a few minutes earlier.

'w-what? He hasn't changed at all? Impossible.' Elder chiyo thought, alarmed.

"Hn, impressive, you managed to get me out of my puppet, not much can claim to…" Sasori didn't get to finish his sentence as he looked into the man's eyes; he slumped and fell on the ground, out cold.

The figure dropped his hood, revealing short spiky blond hair and showing his eyes which were a clear blue with strange ripple pattern in them.

'I knew it, Naruto-kun!' Hinata thought, happily, her eyes brimming with tears.

'Naruto? He's alive! But…his eyes, it can't be, it's…' Kakashi thought.

"Naruto" the others gasped.

"You know this boy?" elder chiyo asked.

"Yes, he's my former student, but we all thought he was dead." Kakashi said.

'He beat Sasori-danna so easily, without getting a scratch? I've gotta get outta here!' Deidara thought, dropping the kazekage, he tried to make a run for it.

In the blink of an eye, a large 5 tailed fox flashed near the Uzumaki, clearly intent on going after the Akatsuki member but halted as Naruto held out his hand.

The fox was about the height of Naruto's waist, with black fur with the tips of his its tails, eyes and the bottom half of his paws white. It also had clear blue eyes.

"But aniki, he's getting away!" the fox said.

They were shocked that the fox had called Naruto his aniki but even more alarmed at the 5 tails swishing behind him.

"No Arashi, let him go." Naruto said in a calm voice that was strange to the konoha-nin.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

The blonde just looked at her with cold ripple eye.

"Naruto how are you alive?" Kakashi asked.

The blonde just ignored them and fixed his gaze on the female Hyuuga. His eyes reverting back to normal and softening as he looked at her.

He gave a small smile at the blushing Hyuuga.

**Naru-Uchiha: how was that? Ya better review okay? Ya know the plot is pretty expendable so give me your ideas, pretty please.**

**Review and the review must longer than 10 words at least. No flames, but constructive criticism is appreciated. Expect an update on Tuesday. I will update most of my stories each Tuesday. **

**Ja ne **


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